LETTER XIII. [A.D.382]

IN the year following the Council of Aquileia, a Council of the Bishops of the civil Diocese of Italy appears to have been held, over which S. Ambrose presided. It appears to have dealt principally with the questions at issue between the East and West. This letter was written by S. Ambrose in the name of the Council, after the end of its session ('in concilio nuper,' § 3), to Theodosius. The Bishops complain of the election of Flavian to succeed Meletius at Antioch, contrary to the compromise which they urged in the last letter, and maintain Maximus' claim to the see of Constantinople against Nectarius, urging again the necessity of a General Council of both East and West, to settle finally all the questions in dispute between them, and suggest that it should be held at Rome.

TO THE MOST BLESSED EMPEROR AND MOST GRACIOUS PRINCE THEODOSIUS, AMBROSE AND THE OTHER BISHOPS OF ITALY.

1. WE knew indeed that your holy mind was devoted to God in pure and sincere faith, but your Majesty has loaded us with fresh benefits in restoring the Catholics to the Churches. And I would that you could have restored the Catholics themselves to their ancient reverence, that they would innovate in nothing against the prescription of our ancestors, and not be hasty either to rescind what what they ought to maintain nor to maintain what they ought to rescind. Therefore we sigh, your Majesty, perhaps with too much grief, but not without sufficient reason, that it has proved easier to get the heretics expelled than to establish concord among the Catholics. For the extent of the confusion that has lately taken place is beyond expression.

2. We wrote to you not long ago, that since the city of Antioch had two Bishops, Paulinus and Meletius, both of whom we regarded as true to the faith, they should either agree with each other in peace and concord, preserving Ecclesiastical order, or at least, if one of them died before the other, no one should be put into the place of the deceased while the other lived. But now on the death of Meletius, while Paulinus is still alive, whom fellowship derived from our predecessors uninterruptedly testifies to have remained in our Communion, another person is said to have been not so much supplied, as super-added, into the place of Meletius, contrary to right and to Ecclesiastical order.

3. And this is alleged to have taken place by the consent and advice of Nectarius  02-14  14. a In the regard of the question between Nectarius and Maximus, the Western Bishops had been deceived by the latter. Maximus, called the Cynic because he retained the outward garb of a Cynic philosopher after he professed to have become a Christian, was irregularly consecrated at Constantinople, but was never recognised, and was formally pronounced by the Council not to be a true Bishop. He then went about trying to stir up other Churches in his favour. See Prof. Bright's Hist, of the Church pp. 160— 166. , the regularity of whose ordination we are not clearly convinced of. For in a Council lately, when Maximus the Bishop, having read the letter of Peter a man of holy memory, had shewn that the communion of the Church of Alexandria remained with him, and had proved by the clearest testimony, that he was  02-15  15. b This is translated from an ingenious and probable conjecture of Valesius. consecrated by three Bishops ordaining by mandate within his private house, because the Arians were at that time in possession of the Basilicas, we had no cause, most blessed of Princes, to doubt of his episcopacy, when he testified that he resisted and was forcibly constrained by a majority of the laity and clergy.

4. Still that we might not appear to have settled any thing over-hastily in the absence of the parties, we thought it fit to inform your Grace by letter, in order that his case might be provided for so as best to serve the interests of public peace and concord, because in truth we perceived that Gregory claimed to himself the priesthood of the Church of Constantinople, by no means in accordance with the tradition of the Fathers. We therefore in that Synod, attendance at which appeared to have been prescribed to the Bishops of the whole world, were of opinion that nothing ought to be decided rashly. So at that particular time the persons who declined a general Council and who are said to have had one at Constantinople, where they had ascertained that Maximus had come hither to plead his cause in the Synod (and this, even if a Council had not been proclaimed it was competent for him to do lawfully and according to the customs of our predecessors, as also Athanasius of holy memory, and since that Peter, brother Bishops of the Church of Alexandria, and several of the Eastern Bishops have done, so as to appear to have sought the decision of the Churches of Rome, of Italy, and of all the West) when, as we said, they saw that he wished to bring the question to a trial with those who denied his episcopate, they were surely bound to wait for our opinion upon it  02-16  16. c The text through this long sentence is confused and ungrammatical, but it conveys the general sense expressed in the translation with tolerable clearness. . We do not claim any special privilege of examining such matters, but we ought to have had a share in an united decision.

5. Last of all, it ought to have been decided whether he was to lose his See, before deciding whether another should receive it, especially by persons by whom Maximus complained that he was either deserted or injured. Therefore since Maximus the Bishop has been received into Communion by those of our fellowship on the ground that it was certain that he had been ordained by Catholics, we did not see that he ought to have been excluded from his claim to the Bishopric of Constantinople, and we thought that his allegation ought to be weighed in the presence of the parties.

But since we have learned recently that Nectarius has been ordained at Constantinople, we fear that our communion with the Oriental regions is broken, especially since Nectarius is said to have been left immediately without the fellowship of Communion by the very persons by whom he was ordained.

6. There is therefore no slight difficulty here. And it is not any contention about wishes and ambition of our own that makes us anxious, but we are greatly disturbed by the breaking up and interruption of communion. Nor do we see any way in which concord can be established except either by restoring to Constantinople the Bishop who was first ordained, or at least having a Council of ourselves and of the Eastern Bishops at Rome, to consider the ordination of both of them.

7. Nor does it seem unbecoming, your Majesty, that the persons, who thought the judgement of Acholius, a single Bishop, so well worth waiting for, that they called him to Constantinople from the regions of the West, should be obliged to submit to the discussion of the Bishop of the Church of Rome, and of the Bishops of the neighbourhood and of Italy. If a question was reserved for a single individual, how much more should it be reserved for many?

8. We, however, as it has been suggested to us by the most blessed Prince, your Brother  02-17  17. d i. e. Gratian. , that we should write to your Grace's Majesty, request that when the communion is one, you would be pleased that the judgement should be joint and the consent concurrent.

EPISTOLA XIII.

 0950A 

 Actis Theodosio gratiis de restitutis in basilicas orthodoxis, et dolore suo propter Ecclesiae turbas significato, episcopum Antiochiae mortuo Meletio subrogatum queritur: et ut Nectarius Constantinopoli post Maximum ordinatus loco cedat, vel de utriusque ordinatione in synodo Romae pronuntietur, petit. 

Beatissimo Imperatori, et clementissimo principi THEODOSIO, AMBROSIUS et caeteri episcopi Italiae.

1. Sanctum animum tuum Deo omnipotenti pura et sincera fide deditum sciebamus: sed recentibus cumulasti beneficiis, quod catholicos Ecclesiis reddidisti, Imperator Auguste. Atque utinam catholicos ipsos reverentiae veteri reddidisses, ut nihil novarent contra praescripta majorum, nec temere vel servanda  0950B rescinderent, vel rescindenda servarent. Itaque dolentius forte quam inconsultius ingemiscimus, Imperator, facilius expelli potuisse haereticos, quam inter catholicos convenire. Quanta enim nuper confusio facta sit, explicari non potest.

2. Scripseramus dudum, ut quoniam Antiochena civitas duos haberet episcopos, Paulinum atque Meletium, quos fidei concinere 815 putabamus, aut inter ipsos pax et concordia salvo ordine ecclesiastico conveniret: aut certe, si quis eorum. altero superstite, decessisset, nulla subrogatio in defuncti locum, superstite altero, gigneretur. At nunc Meletio defuncto, Paulino superstite, quem in communione nostra mansisse consortia, quae a majoribus inoffense ducta, testantur, contra fas atque ecclesiasticum ordinem  0950C in locum Meletii, non tam subrogatus, quam superpositus asseritur.

3. Atque hoc factum allegatur consensione et consilio Nectarii, cujus ordinatio quem ordinem habuerit,  0951A non videmus. Namque in concilio nuper, cum Maximus episcopus Alexandrinae Ecclesiae communionem manere secum, lectis Petri sanctae memoriae viri litteris, prodidisset; ejusque intra privatas aedes, quia Ariani Ecclesiae basilicas adhuc tenebant, secretum esse, mandatoribus episcopis ordinantibus, dilucida testificatione docuisset, nihil habuimus, beatissime principum, in quo de episcopatu ejus dubitare possemus; cum vim sibi repugnanti a plerisque etiam de populo et clero testatus esset illatam.

4. Tamen ne, absentibus partibus, praesumpte aliquid definisse videremur, clementiam tuam, datis litteris, putavimus instruendam; ut ei consuleretur ex usu publicae pacis atque concordiae; quia revera  0951B advertebamus Gregorium nequaquam secundum traditionem patrum, Constantinopolitanae Ecclesiae sibi sacerdotium vindicare. Nos igitur in synodo ea, quae totius orbis 816 episcopis videbatur esse praescripta, nihil temere statuendum esse censuimus. Adeo ipso tempore qui generale concilium declinaverunt, Constantinopolique gessisse dicuntur; nam cum cognovissent ad hoc partium venisse Maximum  0952A ut causam in synodo ageret suam (quod etiamsi indictum concilium non fuisset, jure et more majorum, sicut et sanctae memoriae Athanasius, et dudum Petrus, Alexandrinae Ecclesiae episcopi, et Orientalium plerique fecerunt; ut ad Ecclesiae Romanae, Italiae, et totius Occidentis confugisse judicium viderentur); cum eum, sicut diximus, experiri velle adversum eos, qui episcopatum ejus abnuerant, comperissent; praestolari utique etiam nostram super eo sententiam debuerunt. Non praerogativam vindicamus examinis, sed consortium tamen debuit esse communis arbitrii.

5. Postremo prius constare oportuit, utrum huic abrogandum, quam alii conferendum sacerdotium videretur; ab his praesertim, a quibus se Maximus  0952B vel destitutum, vel appetitum injuria querebatur. Itaque cum Maximum episcopum receperunt in communionem nostra consortia, quoniam eum a catholicis constitit episcopis ordinatum, nec ab episcopatus Constantinopolitani putavimus petitione removendum. Cujus allegationem praesentibus partibus aestimavimus esse pendendam. Nectarium autem cum nuper nostra mediocritas Constantinopoli cognoverit  0953A ordinatum, cohaerere communionem nostram cum Orientalibus partibus 817 non videmus; praesertim cum ab iisdem Nectarius dicitur illico sine communionis consortio destitutus, a quibus fuerat ordinatus.

6. Non mediocris igitur hic scrupulus. Nec quaedam nos angit de domestico studio et ambitione contentio, sed communio soluta et dissociata perturbat. Nec videmus eam posse aliter convenire; nisi aut is reddatur Constantinopoli, qui prior est ordinatus: aut certe super duorum ordinatione sit in urbe Roma nostrum Orientaliumque concilium.

7. Neque enim indignum videtur, Auguste, ut Romanae Ecclesiae antistitis, finitimorumque et Italorum episcoporum debeant subire tractatum,  0953B qui unius Acholii episcopi ita exspectandum esse putaverunt judicium, ut de Occidentalibus partibus Constantinopolim evocandum putarent. Si quid uni huic reservatum est, quanto magis pluribus reservandum est!

8. Nos autem a beatissimo principe fratre tuae pietatis admoniti, ut tuae clementiae scriberemus imperio; postulamus ut ubi una communio est, commune velit esse judicium, concordantemque consensum.